Swine fever: State pays Br2.6 million for 140kg pig

Inhabitants of Stoubtsy District have been compensated for the killed pigs. Pigs were eliminated in the following villages: Tsesnavaya, Niunaye, Nalibaki, Hatava and Zyanevichy. When we arrived there, we saw people killing their pigs in advance so that they would not be taken away and eliminated. Mass killing started a few days later. Bodies were put into trucks and taken away. But no one used scales to weigh the pigs and people only received “acts” with officials’ signatures. However, there were no seals and the sum of the compensation was not indicated there.

Nevertheless, people were compensated for their pigs, Tsesnavaya inhabitants told Euroradio.

“We made a list of owners and sent it to the District Executive Committee. The province budget paid for all the losses,” head of Litvinski District Executive Committee Tadevush Halavach said. “We paid for everything three weeks after the confiscation.”

Euroradio: How much did they pay?

Tadevush Halavach:  “18 969 roubles per kilo. People were worrying about the absence of seals. Then we got sealed acts in the veterinary service. Veterinarians weighed animals during the euthanasia.  And owners knew the weight too. Nobody reduced the weight.”

Thus, a 140 kilo pig cost about 2 656 000 roubles. In theory, villagers could sell the meat at twice the price a few months ago. But the sum is not small if you take the emergency situation into account.

Villagers received their compensation. What about farmers who lost hundreds of pigs?

“I applied for compensation,” Anatol Yanovich, farmer who lost over 100 pigs in Valozhyn District, told Euroradio. “Now I’m waiting for their response. They confiscated my pigs on July 20 and said that the compensation would be paid within two weeks. I will not be allowed to do pig-breeding for a year. I have lost a lot and it will take 2 or 3 years to recover.”

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The official nidi of African pig fever are in two spots – Lichesa pig farm in Vitsebsk District and Chapun village in Iuye District (Hrodna province). However, inhabitants of Lyahavichy, Ivatsevichy, Pruzhany and Baranavichy Districts have been ordered to kill their pigs recently. Pigs were also confiscated in Stoubsty, Valozhyn and even Svetlahorsk Districts. This information was distributed by mass media. The scale of the epidemic seems large.

Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Leanid Zayats explained the situation by “the presence of nidi of African swine fever and measures being taken to prevent its distribution”. Meanwhile, our neighbouring EU member states have raised the alarm and asked Brussels to allocate huge sums of money for preventive measures.